


Stuck in the Middle with You

by nonbinarycoded



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 11:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinarycoded/pseuds/nonbinarycoded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>York decides he's had enough of Wash making fun of his lock picking skills and handcuffs Wash and Maine together, leaving Wash to sort out exactly why being so close to Maine didn't really seem like a bad thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stuck in the Middle with You

**Author's Note:**

> Secret Santa present for agentwashingtons on tumblr! I'm so sorry it was this late!

Wash opened his eyes with a sigh, barest hints of a smile flickering across his face as he sat up in bed and stretched. Joints popping and cracking created almost a kind of music, accompanied by the creaking of bed springs and the quiet chiming of the alarm on his phone. He grabbed his phone off the nightstand next to him, tapped away the alarm, and-

“Oh, _fuck_ no. Nope. No.”

-promptly dropped the phone back on the nightstand so he could curl back up in bed. He'd tried to ignore the date displayed below the time on the screen, but it was a bit hard to miss the word 'Monday'. He said the word once, quietly, the word spilling past his lips like a swear, like something not meant to be heard by innocent ears. It seemed to hang in the still air of the bedroom, almost impossible to ignore now that it was out in the open. Curling tighter into his blankets, he wondered if he could will himself into being sick, or maybe to disappearing into the bed altogether. He'd settle for anything that would get him out of having to get up and get ready.

It only took a few minutes for him to start drifting off again. The world seemed to condense itself into the few feet of blankets and pillows around Wash, and the warmth of the room made it almost impossible for him to keep his eyes open. He'd just been thinking about how perfectly silent the room was when the harsh buzzing of his phone against the nightstand snapped him from his rest and forced him to once again uncurl from the blankets so he could near-blind himself with his phone's display.

_Absolutely not worth it_ , he decided when he saw a new text from York. 

_'U awake?'_

_'Am now_ ,' he texted back, pushing himself into a sitting position and planting his feet on the ground. Maybe he'd have better luck staying awake if he wasn't laying down. It wasn't like he didn't have time to sleep; he purposefully woke up almost a full hour and a half before he needed to so he could get ready and make sure he was completely awake before he went to school. It struck him as odd that York was awake so early just as he got another text.

_'Alright don't kill me. U have to promise u won't kill me before I tell u what I did'_

Wash frowned, everything in his head telling him something was about to go very, very wrong. ' _What did u do?'_ he texted back, refusing to look away from the phone screen until he got an answer.

' _U should go check a clock that isn't ur phone_ '

Wash was up in a second, grogginess from sleep forgotten as he rushed out his door and into the kitchen to check the clock on the stove. He stood in shock, trying to understand how the clock on the stove read a full hour ahead of the clock on his phone when he got another text.

' _Ok ok changing the time on ur phone was souths idea we thought u needed to sleep more pls dont kill us u still have time to get here_ '

Shock suddenly dissolving into anger, he texted back, ' _I'M GOING TO BE LATE I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU HOLY SHIT'_ before sprinting back to his room to get dressed. He ignored his phone buzzing with another message in favor of getting ready as fast as he could. Hair unbrushed and shoes untied, he jumped into his car and sped to school.

He didn't actually speed, of course. That was illegal, and he didn't want to get in trouble.

The security guard shook her head as he sprinted onto campus moments before the warning bell rang. The warning bell meant two minutes to get to his first class, which was all the way across campus. _Fantastic_. He broke out into a dead run, hoping that Professor Delta would be in a good enough mood to let him in just a few seconds after the bell rang if it came to that. He rounded a corner and crashed into what he thought was a wall at first, but after falling back onto his ass and cursing, he realized it was Maine. Wash's face flushed slightly, and he passed it off as the running catching up to him. He wasn't blushing because he looked stupid in front of Maine; that was stupid. Why would he do that?

He was still mentally defending his blushing when Maine held a hand out to help him up. Wash took it and no, his face did not go more red, shut up. He didn't bother to question why Maine was this late as well, only walked with him into their first class, door opening just as the late bell rang. Mr. Delta looked up from his desk, eyes narrowing slightly when he saw the pair step into the classroom. Wash was sure he said something about how he'd appreciate if the pair kept personal matters short enough that they could get to class on time, but the staring and snickers from the classroom seemed to be far more important at the moment. York especially seemed to be staring, and Wash didn't think he'd ever hated someone more than he did York at that moment.

It took him a moment to realize people were staring because he'd never let go of Maine's hand after being helped up. His eyes widened and his face grew even more red as he snatched his hand back from Maine's, rushing to take his seat. He figured an hour of sitting away from Maine and focusing on math work would be enough to take his mind off things. He was midway through this thought when Maine took his seat next to Wash.

_Fuck_.

\--- --- --- ---

York tried to rush from the classroom when the bell rang, but Wash made sure to catch up to him. The glare on Wash's face so sharply contrasted York's bright grin it would have been funny if Wash didn't want to kill York. Of course, York chose to deal with this by grinning wider and saying, “So, you and Maine, huh? Fucking finally. South owes me five bucks.”  
  
It caught Wash off guard, and instead of yelling at York about what had happened that morning, he found himself stammering and trying to come up with an explanation.  
  
“We aren't- We didn't- It was an accident! I ran into him, we aren't together, I- ..Why would South owe you _money_?!”

Instead of answering the question, York just laughed. “Come on, wouldn't want to be late to your next class too.”  
  
Just like that, murder was back in Wash's eyes. “I can't fucking _believe_ you! You fucking asshole, don't touch my phone! How did you even get past the lock on it?”  
  
“Please, Wash, you know how good I am with locks.”  
  
“Carolina had to do it for you, didn't she?”

“Okay- _maybe_ , but that's not the point here.”  
  
“That's _definitely_ the point here. You know, for someone that says they're so good at picking locks, you're terrible at it. _I_ could do better than you with picking locks.”

“Yeah, we'll see about that,” York said, walking off towards his next class.  
  
“...Wait, what does that mean?” Wash called after him, but he didn't get an answer.

\--- --- --- ---

“You're giving the guy too much credit, Wash. Calm down,” North said, smirking.

Wash shifted his position against Maine and groaned in frustration, lunch in front of him forgotten in favor of worrying and voicing that worry to his friends. “No, North, you don't get it. The way he said 'We'll see'... He's up to something, I can tell.”  
  
“Or he's just trying to get into your head. He's an asshole, he'd do that,” South added, not looking up from where she was aiming a carrot. North followed his sister's line of sight to Carolina's low-cut shirt, and shifted down the bench away from Carolina. He didn't need to be hurt in the fight that was probably about to happen.

“Okay, then where is he now? Why isn't he here? ...What if he's messing with the lock on my locker? Fuck, I need to-” Wash was cut off when Maine placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down.” The reply was short, but so was everything else Maine said. Wash still found himself sinking back against Maine, relaxing into the hand on his shoulder. It shouldn't have been that calming, he supposed, to hear Maine say that, but he wasn't going to complain.

Lunch went on fairly normally after that; South managed to land a carrot in Carolina's shirt, and Carolina had to be held down by North and Wash to keep her from upending her tray over South's head. Nobody saw York, but it wasn't brought up again.

Just as he was about to get up to throw the rest of his food out, a hand shoved him back down into his seat and pulled his wrist up. Before he knew what was happening, a pair of clicks came from the handcuffs now leading from Wash's wrist to Maine's. York clapped a hand on each of their backs, laughing so hard his face was turning red.

“I fucking told you we'll see about who can pick locks. I lost the keys to those cuffs years ago! Pick _that_ , asshole!”

There was a long moment where the only sound from anyone in the group was York laughing before Wash shrieked, “What did you _DO_?!” That was all it took for everyone but Wash and Maine to burst into loud laughter, and for York to take several steps away from the table. Maine pushed himself up to go after York, but stopped when he realized he'd almost pulled Wash out of his seat getting up.

Maybe it was the bell that sounded almost on cue, maybe it was the anger on Maine's and Wash's faces, but York decided it was time to go and said a quick goodbye before running. South took several pictures from any angle she could find, presumably for the yearbook, while CT pulled out her phone to do the same for the school paper and every social media account the two could think of. Wash grabbed his bag, slinging it over his one free arm before dragging Maine off away from the group so they could think.

“Even if we shared a class next hour, I wouldn't walk in there like this. The hell do we do now?!” Wash would have been pacing if he could have moved further than a foot without needing Maine to move with him.

“...Are you 18?” Maine asked,  
  
“Yeah, but I really don't see what that has to do with- Okay, we're moving now. Thanks for the warning. Really, I love being dragged around,” Wash said as he trailed behind Maine towards the front office. Maine said nothing, just entered the office and headed straight for the secretary.

“We'll be signing ourselves out,” Maine said, and the secretary fixed him with a bored expression.

“Both of you? What for?”  
  
“Doctor.”

“...You both have a doctor's appointment. At the same time. Together.”  
  
“Yes. May we have the forms now?”

Wash stood dumbstruck; wasn't this technically skipping class? Sure, it was legal, since they were adults and allowed to sign themselves out of school, but he'd never skipped class before! He wasn't supposed to be doing that! He almost raised a hand to stop Maine when he heard the slight _clank_ of the handcuffs bumping together and lowered it again.

When a paper and pen was passed his way, he signed without a problem; he'd never been more thankful to be left-handed. He penned “doctor's appointment” neatly under the reason for leaving and signed his name; when he pushed the paper back towards the secretary he saw Maine had scrawled “Senioritis” as his reason. Of course he'd write in something stupid, but Wash didn't say anything. The secretary unlocked the front door and let Maine and Wash go on their way. If she noticed the handcuffs, she didn't say anything. There really was something to be said for how little the staff at Necessitas High School cared about the student body.

They reached the entrance to the student parking lot before coming to a stop. “...What do we do now?” Wash asked, looking up at Maine.  
  
“Do you have tools? We need a saw.” It was probably the longest set of sentences Maine had said all day, but Wash just nodded.  
  
“There's a hacksaw in my dad's toolbox, if we can get back to my house. ...Oh fuck, do I have to drive?” The realization hit Wash suddenly; he was handcuffed to Maine's left, so he'd have to drive either car they took.

With one hand.

_Fantastic_ .

Maine nodded, heading for Wash's car rather than his pickup truck. They had everything figured out; they'd drive to Wash's house, cut the cuffs apart, drive back so Maine could get his truck, then come to school the next morning and beat York over the head with the remains of the cuffs for being an idiot. It was the perfect plan.  
  
“...Maine?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“How are we gonna get in my car?”

There was a long silence while the pair stared at the car in front of them, then down at the handcuffs on their wrists and back before Wash muttered, “... _Fuck_ .”

After almost ten minutes of shuffling and moving, almost half of which had involved Wash sitting in Maine's lap trying to figure out where to go from there, they managed to shift Wash from Maine's lap in the passenger seat to the driver's seat.

And no, Wash was not red because of that. Shut up. He wasn't embarrassed by his temporary seat, he was angry at the entire situation that was going on at the moment. Why would he be embarrassed by sitting in Maine's lap? That was just stupid, it didn't make any sense.

There was a minor hitch when Wash realized he would in fact have to drive home with one hand, seeing as Maine could barely reach the wheel and had no interest in having an arm jerked around the whole ride. After reassuring Wash that no, driving with one hand wasn't illegal, and yes, they'd be perfectly fine for one fifteen-minute car ride, Maine had calmed Wash down enough to get them on the road. He ended up resting his arm with Wash's on the console box between the two seats, fingers playing over Wash's and eventually settling his hand over Wash's. He noticed how red Wash was because of this, but only smirked and said nothing. He'd move his hand if he heard a complaint.

Of course, there were plenty of complaints in Wash's head.  _This is so dangerous oh my god he's distracting me what is he even doing does he know that's my hand does he know how fucking good looking he is when he smirks like that god dammit this is so distracting I can't believe him_ . He just never voiced them. He wasn't quite sure why.

They got to the house, and there was a long sigh from both of them when they realized they'd have to maneuver their way back out of the car. Maine lifted Wash back over the console box and held him on his lap for just a second too long before helping him out of the car. From there they fumbled their way inside and through the house, Wash taking several tries to correctly remember where the toolbox was. When they finally found the hacksaw and sat down at a table, Wash stared at the cuffs uncertainly.  
  
“Maine, are you sure this is safe? What if you cut too far? What if you get hurt? Fuck, dude, please don't hurt yourself because of a dumb prank York pulled.” Maine just smirked ( _damn that fucking smirk, I swear he knows exactly how he looks when he does that_ ) and took the saw from Wash's hand before getting to work on his cuff.

The time spent breaking the cuffs apart was almost silent. It was a comfortable silence, though; it had always been like that with Maine. There was never too much of a need for words around him. Just being near him was enough. It took almost twenty minutes to get the cuffs entirely off of the both of them, and more than once Wash caught himself staring at Maine and daydreaming as he worked. He was more reluctant to stop himself that time; plenty of people daydreamed about kissing their best friend, right? That was totally a thing. It didn't _mean_ anything, not at all.  
  
Of course, Maine noticed Wash staring at his lips while he worked. He just didn't say anything. He'd let Wash figure it out.

He held up the handcuffs when he was finished, grin growing when he saw just how happy Wash was to be free of them. “Fucking good, I can't believe York actually did that,” Wash said, watching Maine drop the cuffs into his jacket pocket. “I, uh, I should probably drive you back to the school parking lot so you can get your truck, right?” Maine nodded, and the pair headed back outside to the car to drive back to the school for the second time that day.  
  
Wash ignored that he somehow managed to end up with his arm back on the console box and Maine's fingers playing over his.

Wash pulled up to the curb next to the parking lot and let Maine get out, stammering a quiet goodbye. His thoughts flashed to leaning over and kissing Maine for just a moment, but he shook the thought away and watched Maine get out of the car and start walking. Wash sighed, pulling away from the curb.

Before he realized what he was doing, he'd made a U-turn and pulled back up beside Maine. He had a  _plan_ , dammit. Maine stopped beside Wash's open window, raising a brow. Wash opened his mouth, stammered, and managed a quiet, “Can I have those handcuffs?”

He was an idiot. God, he was so stupid- he couldn't believe he'd wimped out a second time in a row. Maine nodded, dropping the cuffs into Wash's lap while Wash struggled to say something that wouldn't make him look even more stupid.

Somewhere along the line of looking for something to say, his brain decided to go with the original plan. He took a deep breath, grabbed the front of Maine's shirt, and pulled him in for a kiss.

It didn't strike Wash that maybe this wasn't the best idea until he was pulling away from the kiss, wide-eyed and red faced. Was Maine smiling? Why was Maine smiling? Wash knew he should say something, _anything_.

“See you at school tomorrow!”

And then he was back on the road, refusing to look at Maine getting smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror. His breathing was coming too quickly, and he felt his face burning. He was an idiot. He was _such_ a fucking idiot. Why had he done that? What was wrong with him?

He made it home, worrying the entire way. He was just glad his parents hadn't gotten home yet, and he was able to drop onto his bed without worrying about one of them walking in on him. His head spun with the argument he was having with himself.

_Why the fuck did you do that? That was so stupid!_

_Well he didn't pull back, and he smiled afterward..._

_That doesn't mean anything! You two were just friends, you fucked it up!_

_...But what if he's okay with being more than-_

_No. Don't. You fucked up. Stop that._

Wash stared at his phone- when had he picked that up? He opened up his last conversation with York, preparing to type out a message when he felt the handcuffs shift in his jacket pocket. Without a moment's hesitation, he closed York's conversation and opened up Connie's. He wasn't sure how long he stared at the phone screen, debating on talking to her before a new message from her appeared on the screen.

' _You and Maine, huh? Finally_ '

Wash went twenty different shades of red, almost dropping the phone in his haste to tap out an answer. ' _Where did u hear that?!? Nothing happened!!_ '

' _Aw, but Maine told me you kissed him. Did he lie?_ '

...Well, fuck. ' _...ok u have to promise not to tell anyone else bc im still confused but I kissed him and??? we were just friends Connie fuck I fucked up_ '

Her reply was immediate, ' _Oh my god ok first calm down_ '. The wait bubble still showed she was typing, though, so Wash waited. A minute later, another message appeared. _'He likes you and I can't believe you didn't realize that, /you/ like /him/ and I can't believe /you/ didn't realize that before now, now talk to each other and stop making me play messenger._ '

Wash stared at the screen for a long time, trying to comprehend exactly what she was saying. Maine liked him? Since when? Eventually he texted back a simple, ' _Thanks Connie_ ' and opened up his last conversation with Maine.

It took him ten minutes to decide he actually wanted to do this, and another ten for him to type up a message.

' _do u wanna catch a movie after school tomorrow?_ '

He stared down at his phone, trying to decide if he should actually press send. It wasn't too late to turn back now, right? He could just delete the message, pretend he'd never talked to Connie, and take a nap. It was a perfectly fine plan, and he was preparing to do it when his cat yowled loudly directly into his ear.

He jumped and fumbled with the phone, pulling it back up to see that he'd accidentally pressed send. He cursed loudly, scaring the cat out of the room. He was halfway through typing something to retract it when Maine texted him back.

' _Yeah, sure, theater by my house?'_

Wash sighed and forced his breathing to slow, the smallest smile flashing across his face as he texted back, ' _sounds like a date_ '.

\--- --- --- ---

The next morning, Wash woke up on time and made it to school early enough to meet up with Maine before class. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised when Maine pulled him in for a kiss to, as he put it, “Make them even.” They walked into their first hour together, Wash still red but holding Maine's hand. When York turned to see them and whistled, Wash threw the handcuffs at his head. Professor Delta pretended not to notice.

Wash grinned; maybe things would work out after all.


End file.
